Robert McKinley, Senior Analyst/Editor
Robert McKinley is an analyst of the payments industry on a daily basis for 32 years covering payment cards and payment systems from both the business side and the consumer side. McKinley is the retired founder and chief executive of RAM Research, CardWeb and CardTrak. In his prior position, McKinley has participated in more than 10,000 documented news media interviews, testified as an expert witness in two separate $billion+ U.S. anti-trust trials, testified before the U.S. Congress, assisted the GAO with paymentsIMG_2006 (1).jpeg reports, chaired numerous business conferences and provided C-Suite opinion to a multitude of Fortune 500 companies. In retirement, he has continued developing and funding digital media assets as well as contributing payments related analysis/content to a broad list of online publishers, including CardFlash, CardTrak and CardData. McKinley is also a national certified mentor with the non-profit SCORE organization with a focus on assisting Fintech startups. www.robert-mckinley.com

NCR Corporation, the global leader in consumer transaction technologies, announced that it has won a volume order from Agricultural Bank of China (“ABC”) for more than 1,500 NCR SelfServ ATMs, which includes NCR SelfServ 22 and SelfServ 25 models. NCR has out-competed other providers in this bid, securing the largest share of order from ABC and further consolidating its leadership position in the cash-dispenser ATM machine market in China. These newly purchased ATMs will be deployed by ABC in 18 provinces across China during the third and fourth quarters. All NCR SelfServ ATM models shipped to ABC will be equipped with the latest NCR safe, which is designed to offer increased physical security levels with thicker walls and tougher composite steel and concrete construction.

MoneyGram and Ukash partnered to let Ukash customers send domestic and international money transfers from the Ukash website and receive the funds at any of MoneyGram’s 327,000 agent locations worldwide or through MoneyGram’s account deposit channels. The agreement, which was announced earlier this year, now makes it easy for UK customers who prefer the security of not providing their credit or debit card information online to send money to friends and family using a Ukash code and MoneyGram’s robust global agent network. Using a Ukash code, up to £200 can be sent online at www.ukash.com for collection at any of MoneyGram’s 327,000 outlets in nearly 200 countries around the world, either as cash or direct to a bank account or e-wallet.

Lusis Payments payments software launched its Tango MarketPlace. Already deployed in a number of successful live trials and offers a configurable set of standard TANGO components implemented as an online marketplace. The marketplace is complete with customer registration, merchant onboarding and self-service, including configurable website themes and content for local communities, businesses or individuals who want to buy and sell goods and services and share their experiences through social media. This front-end solution is backed by an integrated and secure SEPA-compliant payment system, with a delivery logistics tracking mechanism completing the full end-to-end experience.

Sopra Banking Software, a global leader in banking software and services, is pleased to announce the launch of SkyBy for digital wallets at Sibos 2013. Digital wallets are a must for banks and other payment service providers to secure customer loyalty and offer lots of advantageous features. Other differentiating features include on-the-fly customer advice. It not only comprises front-end functionalities, but also takes care of the back-end, which includes the digital wallet server and integration with payment and credit platforms. Sopra Banking’s long experience with the development of software solutions for online banks or the engines for retail banks’ online arms have created the necessary expertise in that regard.

CSR privacy compliance announced a major expansion of its western regional office in Reno, Nevada, to support growth in its customer base and to provide an expanded facility in support of further creation of products and services for portfolio focused value-added resellers. Expanding the line of CSR ToolKits means new ongoing revenue streams that require minimal effort for channel partners who resell these security services to their customers. The CSR Privacy ToolKit™ is the newest addition to the suite of services and the only information security solution of its kind to help identify and remediate risk, create customized policies, train employees in data privacy and monitor compliance.

Wells Fargo announced Wells Fargo customers completed more than one billion paperless transactions at its ATMs since 2009 and now have the option to conclude a transaction without an ATM receipt or to select a receipt to be sent to an Online Banking inbox, a designated personal e-mail account, or a mobile phone number. Customers have avoided using more than 300 million feet of receipt paper which could circle the earth’s circumference more than two times – approximately 63,000 miles. To increase the choices available to customers and further reduce paper waste, a text receipt option was offered to customers at Wells Fargo ATMs nationwide in June 2013. Wells Fargo was the first bank to offer email and text receipt options to its customers.

[ihc-hide-content ihc_mb_type=”show” ihc_mb_who=”0″ ihc_mb_template=”1″] Discover has been named by the International Quality & Productivity Center (IQPC) as the winner of two industry-leading 2013 Call Center Excellence Awards: Best Contact Center Learning, Development and Recognition Program and Best Performance Acting on the Voice of the Customer and Voice of the Social Customer. For the fourth consecutive…

Singapore is currently the fastest growing country in the world for Visa payWave thanks to increased consumer and retailer acceptance with the addition of new merchants in the “everyday” segment, such as cafes, cinemas, fast food chains, pharmacies and convenience stories, as well as increased consumer acceptance. Contactless payment momentum has been greatly supported by major supermarket chains in Singapore and this has increased Visa payWave acceptance across the island. Cold Storage, Market Place, Giant and, most recently, NTUC FairPrice have also adopted Visa payWave as a payment option. There are now more than 1.5 million Visa payWave cards2 issued in Singapore, an increase of half a million cards since the beginning of the year. Locally, cardholders can choose from 17 Visa payWave cards issued by national banks.

MoneyGram signed an agreement with Poste Italiane, whereby it will continue to offer services to consumers at convenient locations close to where they live and work. Poste Italiane (Italian Post Office) is the largest and most diverse infrastructure in logistic and technology solutions in Italy. It provides postal, financial, insurance and mobile telephony solutions to individuals, private corporations and public authorities. With its extensive network in the nation, Poste Italiane serves around 37 million clients throughout Italy. There are now more than 9000 Poste Italiane offices available for money transfer service with MoneyGram. MoneyGram’s growth strategy includes aligning with postal operators to provide consumers with convenient access to reliable money transfer services in easily accessible locations.

Diners Club International, Ltd., owned by Discover Financial Services and Worldline, Atos subsidiary for e-payment services, announced a new relationship that will allow the acceptance of Discover and Diners Club cards by merchants using Worldline electronic payment services in Belgium. Worldline will add acceptance of Discover Network and Diners Club International’s cards – which are already accepted in more than 185 countries worldwide – as a standard to its payment processing services portfolio, starting in 2014.

Fiserv announced Robert R. Craig as its Senior VP, Biller Solutions. Here he will oversee strategic direction and day-to-day management of biller products and solutions from Fiserv, as well as business development, marketing and account management. He has extensive experience and is a respected leader in the billing and payments industry. Most recently, he was Chief Executive Officer of eDeposit Corporation, which provides prepaid financial services for consumers, merchants and businesses. Previously, he spent five years at Online Resources (ORCC), now ACI, as executive vice president and general manager of the eCommerce Services division, growing the company’s biller business by triple digits during his tenure. With a background rooted in the payments industry, Craig has also held leadership positions at First Data, REMITCO, Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase. He holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Lafayette College.

LevelUp launched the LevelUp Software Development Kit (SDK), which will enable developers to easily integrate mobile payments into their own applications. The LevelUp SDK is part of LevelUp’s ongoing strategy to create an open platform for mobile payments, with easy access for merchants, consumers, and developers. For the non-technical folks out there, an SDK is basically a nicely packaged set of tools that lets developers build on a specific platform, or integrate some desirable functionality built by somebody else. SDKs can be really broad, enabling the creation of entirely new apps (like Apple’s iOS SDK), or much more specific, letting developers integrate existing functionality into their own apps (like Facebook’s social SDK). LevelUp’s SDK is more like Facebook’s than Apple’s. Developers can now add mobile payment-specific functionality to their new or existing applications.